The Infected
The Infected are humans who possess a rare genetic mutation that renders them able to survive Tiberium Toxemia, ending up a Human/Bacteria hybrid. They are shunned by normal society due to their mutations and often horrifying appearance and usually tend to band with each other. http://dimensionscollide.wikia.com/index.php?title=The_Forgotten&action=edit&section=1 edit Contents hide*1 Anatomy **1.1 Cut Content *2 History *3 Organization *4 Military **4.1 Second Tiberium War ***4.1.1 Vehicles ***4.1.2 Infantry **4.2 Fourth Tiberium War *5 References |} Anatomy A human who survives Tiberium contamination shouldn't be considered lucky - Tiberium crystals merge with their flesh, growing over time. Concentrations of crystallized tissue can develop to the point where they burst and excrete a thick, viscuous liquid, which quickly hardens on the victim's skin, creating an exoskeleton of sorts. While it devours the mutant's exterior, Tiberium toxins continue to ravage the inside, changing large amounts of bone marrow and muscle tissue into crystal formations. Eventually, the victim turns into a distorted mass of bone and flesh. Of course, the process is not instantaneous and can often take months or even years to complete. Before crippling disabilities (as seen above) set in, a Tiberian human will only become stronger with each passing day. They tend to be faster, stronger and more agile than pure humans, and the presence of Tiberium is not harmful to them, on the contrary, it actually accelerates their healing. Cut Content In Westwood's C&C3, the Forgotten were to play a major part in retaliating against the invading Scrin, as they could control Tiberium and the environment it has reshapen in ways the aliens could not, making them an extreme threat to the invaders and an extremely valuable ally. Some of their powers included the ability to negate Scrin abilities, control over Tiberian fauna and flora as well as the ability to call in ion storms. These plans were shifted out but the Forgotten still made an appearance in CnC 3, as controllable units that could be enlisted from Mutant Hovels that GDI created for them. History With the arrival and proliferation of Tiberium, civilian population without access to shielding equipment of any sort were subject to contamination and irradiation by the element. Those who weren't killed developed physical and mental changes, becoming mutants. Those unaffected distrusted the mutants, making them outsiders and, as often happens in this situation, the outcasts banded together, and so, the Forgotten movement was born. The Forgotten organization is dedicated to the protection and support of fellow Mutants. As the Tiberium infestation became more and more widespread, only the Forgotten - and Nod, remained in the infested zones - those tropical places close to the equator where Tiberium could flourish. As time went on, they would no longer resemble humans. The mutants would do anything to survive, and often raided Nod and GDI bases alike for food and supplies. They suffered a great deal of discrimination from "normal" humans as deformed outcasts. GDI and Nod personnel alike often treat mutants as inferior and with contempt, or worse. Many were imprisoned in Nod medical colonies, where they were studied for the effects Tiberium mutation had on humans. However, by the 2030s mutants seemed to be slowly being accepted by regular humans. During the Second Tiberium War, they were known to operate in North America and Europe, bringing them into conflict with GDI and Nod forces there. Both sides realized that the expertise of the members of the Forgotten was crucial to their war effort. On one occasion, Nod forces dressed up as GDI soldiers and attack Forgotten outposts in an attempt to turn the mutants against GDI. Ultimately, however, the Forgotten allied with the GDI to rescue their leader, Tratos, and helping GDI track down Kane's World Altering Missile. In the early days of the Firestorm Crisis, the Forgotten suffered a severe blow when Tratos was assassinated by Nod (on CABAL's recommendation and Slavik's orders). As a result, riots began. At one point it seemed a war between humans and mutants was inevitable, but GDI timely rectified the situation and the two sides calmed down. Unfortunately for the Forgotten, their trouble was not yet over. Soon after Tratos' death, Nod forces under CABAL assaulted their main headquarters in order to retrieve a piece of the Tacitus. It soon became clear that CABAL's ultimate objective was the total extermination of the mutants. The loss of their headquarters and of so many of their people was a severe blow to the Forgotten, from which they did not recover even after the fall of CABAL. Following the Firestorm Crisis, the mutants went into self-imposed exile, with little known about the reasons behind their decision. They hid in yellow zones and some even ventured into dangerous red zones. In an act of good faith, GDI has deployed several G-330X habitat modules for them, and intel reported that the Forgotten claimed these structures as shelters, creating mutant hovels. During the Third Tiberium War, these hovels were to be shelters for Mutant Marauders, strong mutant warriors who hire out their services as mercenaries. Organization During the Second Tiberium War, the Forgotten as an organization was highly decentralized, with local mutant warlords commanding their forces. Tratos was the nominal leader of the mutants, but he could not consolidate the various factions of the Forgotten into one major faction. Tratos' forces were divided into loose combat groups commanded by a Mutant Sergeant who led Mutant Soldiers and regular mutants. Following his assassination (by Nod forces on CABAL's order), no leader rose to replace Tratos and the Forgotten became even more decentralized. It may have contributed to the eventual mutant exodus. Military The Forgotten use equipment which consists almost entirely of scavenged, hijacked or otherwise stolen weaponry and vehicles, which has been known to include anything from modified civilian vehicles outfitted with armor plating and weapons to equipment hijacked from both GDI and Nod depots, to disposed and former Mammoth Tanks to stolen experimental high-tech weaponry such as a portable railgun. The bases they operate from tend to be composed of old and abandoned military buildings and/or converted civilian ones (for instance, observation towers converted into sentry turrets), and are typically set either in deserted Tiberium-infested wastelands or former ghost towns (and cities) which The Forgotten settled in. Interestingly, the Forgotten have managed to tame Tiberium Fiends and use them for combat. The Second Infection Vehicles Old but deadly Mammoth Tanks deployed by the Forgotten in 2030sThe Forgotten use a variety of scavenged military hardware and civilian vehicles, often mixing them, which results in unconventional weapons such as vulcan cannons mounted on armoured sedans or siege cannons housed in school buses. In addition to converted civilian cars, the Forgotten also are known to field old, decomissioned combat vehicles, the most powerful being old X-66 Mammoth Tanks supported from air by helicopters. Their bases also are composed of both civilian and military buildings, with them utilizing observation towers with mounted cannons as makeshift gun emplacements and solar arrays as power plants. Also, several old, prototype models of the Obelisk of Light are known to be in possession of the Forgotten. Infantry A Mutant Marauder in 2047The infantry corps of the Forgotten are composed solely of volunteers, mutants who wish to fight to protect themselves, their loved ones, the organization, to extract revenge or just to survive. Prominent members *Tratos *Umagon *Ghost Stalker Known Forgotten Infantry Units *Mutant (Has 2 one handed weapons, what these weapons are is unclear) *Mutant Soldier *Mutant Rocket Soldier (Uses the same sprite model as Nod Rocket Infantry) *Mutant Sergeant (Similar to Mutants, only they use more powerful handweapons. The weapons have blue muzzle flames) *Mutant Hijacker (Also available to Nod) *Mutant Sniper *Mutant Commando (Otherwise known as Ghoststalker, which is available to GDI) Mutant soldiers are exceptionally strong and resistant. Most of them are ambidextrous and use dual pistols or small submachineguns as their preferred weapon, with some mutants (usually women) preferring long range battle rifles. They fight in small bands as well as in even smaller commando raids and are often lead by minor leaders known as Sergeants. Unfortunately, the armor possessed by mutants is not comparable to the weaponry that they wield, and they can be easily torn apart by anti-infantry weapons. This lack of armor prevents them from being a match for cyborgs. The Forgotten Commando is known as a "Ghostalker". He uses a powerful prototypical Rail Gun, carries the ubiquitous C4 explosive charges, and is usually allied with GDI. Some Mutants choose to specialize as skilled vehicle hijackers and building infiltrators. These individuals could be the primary reason(and means) for accruing some of the Forgottens more exotic weapons(ex. Mammoth tanks and the fabled Rail Gun). These Mutants are associated with the Brotherhood of Nod, as often their military ideology of stealth and infiltration coincides with that of Nod, but on at least 3 occasions, GDI has been fortunate enough to employ Mutant Hijackers. When the proliferation of Tiberium takes even further and uncontrolled mutations, the mutants become more savage and powerful, being able to wield powerful chaingun cannons with ease. An example of these mutants is the Mutant Marauder of the Third Tiberium War. They would hire their services out to anyone willing to pay for them and in a few cases the Scrin invaders used mutants. The Fourth Infection *Ironback *Scrapbus : "One single Flood spore can destroy a species." : — Rtas 'Vadum2 The Flood, designated as LF.Xx.3273 by the Forerunners (Latin Inferi redivivus3meaning "the dead reincarnated"4) and referred to as the Parasite5 and the infection6 by the Covenant, is a species of highly virulent parasitic organisms that reproduce and grow by consuming sentient lifeforms of sufficient biomass and cognitive capability. The Flood was responsible for consuming most of the sentient lifeforms in the galaxy - including the vast majority of Forerunners - during the Forerunner-Flood war in ancient past, prompting the activation of the galaxy-sterilizing Halo Array in 97,445 BCE.7 Originating as a corrupted form of the galaxy's most ancient custodians (the Precursors)8 the Flood reproduces and spreads by infecting other organisms, hijacking their bodies and nervous systems in order to transform them into one of many specialized forms. Through infecting sentient lifeforms, the Flood assimilates their memories and intelligence, and the species becomes collectively more intelligent as a result. Because of their frighteningly rapid growth rate, as long as enough hosts of sufficient biomass and intelligence are available, the Flood is effectively unstoppable. All Flood forms share a single consciousness, which becomes progressively more intelligent and sophisticated with every sentient host that is assimilated. When enough hosts have been infected, the Flood consciousness becomes a Gravemind - a self-aware, highly intelligent entity that strategically commands all Flood forms in an outbreak. Due to this group consciousness, the Flood as a whole is more accurately described as a single, transsentient macro-organism rather than a collection of individuals directed by one or more controlling beings. In the absence of a Gravemind, the Flood possesses only basic coordination; they are incapable of forming complex strategies, and focus solely on attacking and infecting nearby sentient organisms. This stage of a Flood outbreak is known as the Feral Stage. At this stage, the Flood seek to create an assembly of biomass, calcium, and nervous system reserves, which leads to the creation of a Flood hive and the beginnings of a proto-Gravemind. The nature of the Flood's collective consciousness has been likened to a socialist utopia, due to the fact that the Flood act as a unified entity, with no individuality that would be present in other, more traditional species; each component of the Flood meta-organism works tirelessly for the advancement of their species.3 The Flood presents a highly variable and unconventional threat in combat, as it can infect and mutate dead or captured opponents into a myriad of deadly forms, effectively growing stronger as it weakens enemy forces. They are widely considered to be the greatest threat to the existence of life (or, more accurately, biodiversity) in the Milky Way galaxy. History Origins : "Our urge to create is immutable; we must create. But the beings we create shall never again reach out in strength against us. All that is created will suffer. All will be born in suffering, endless grayness shall be their lot. All creation will tailor to failure and pain, that never again shall the offspring of the eternal Fount rise up against their creators. Listen to the silence. Ten million years of deep silence. And now, whimpers and cries; not of birth. That is what we bring: a great crushing weight to press down youth and hope. No more will. No more freedom. Nothing new but agonizing death and never good shall come of it. We are the last of those who gave you breath and form, millions of years ago. We are the last of those your kind defied and ruthlessly destroyed. We are the last Precursors. And now we are ''legion." : — The Gravemind to Catalog in the endgame of the Forerunner-Flood war. Over ten million years before present day, a civilization of supremely advanced beings known as the Precursors thrived in the cosmos. Having assumed the Mantle - the responsibility for the guardianship of all life in the galaxy - they seeded numerous worlds with life, bringing forth a wide range of sentient species across the galaxy. Under their guardianship, numerous intelligent species developed and flourished, including the Forerunners and humanity. The Precursors would eventually choose humanity to be the rightful successors to their Mantle, while judging the Forerunners unworthy. Refusing to accept their creators' judgment, the Forerunners staged a massive rebellionagainst the Precursors.8 The ensuing conflict ended with the Forerunners successfully wiping out all but a few Precursors.9 The few Precursors that escaped from (or were spared by) the Forerunners either went into suspended animation or transmuted themselves into dust that would regenerate into their past forms at a later time. However, over time the dust became defective, creating sickness, disease and biological mutations in other organisms that came into contact with it. With this new form — the earliest stage of the Flood — the Precursors vowed that none of their creations would rise against them again.8 A significantly mutated Precursor, one that would later be known as the last surviving one of its kind,10 was sealed in a Precursor stasis capsule and placed in a small, ravaged planetoid at the galaxy's edge around 9,000,000 BCE.11This being, later known as the Primordial, would eventually reveal the nature of the Flood to those willing to know the truth.8 First outbreak Antecedents The Flood, as it is known in modern times, first appeared in the galaxy some time prior to 107,445 BCE, after ancient humans came into contact with the Precursor dust. This fine, desiccated powder had been stored in millions of glass cylinders placed aboard automated starships,12 bound toward the margins of the Milky Way galaxy from the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud.13 However, over a span of ten million years, the substance had slowly deteriorated, along with the ships themselves failing.12 The crashed remains of these ships were discovered by ancient humans on both inhabited and deserted worlds near the border of intergalactic space, a region of the galaxy to which humans expanded early on in their history. Inside the ships, humanity found the capsules filled with powder, which their tests told them consisted of inert, short-chain organic molecules of unknown purpose.12 Humanity studied the material and deemed it to be harmless, but noted that it had psychotropic effects on lower animals. Small dosages were administered to Pheru, popular domestic animals among humans and San'Shyuum, which resulted in more docile behavior.14 Unbeknownst to the humans or San'Shyuum at the time, the powder was altering the genetic code of the Pheru, manifesting as improved behavior while slowly changing other aspects of their genome.12 Emergence After the humans had exposed the Pheru to the powder for several centuries, more disturbing changes appeared. Pheru treated with the powder began exhibiting furry growths and fleshy protrusions, which other Pheru were compelled to consume. Shortly afterward, the Pheru began suffering widespread abortions and genetic deformities, and many were euthanized or released into the wild. Soon afterward, the humans and San'Shyuum who had been in the presence of the altered Pheru began to exhibit some of the symptoms of the powder-induced "disease". Affected on a psychological level by the strange illness, infected victims began to consume the sick Pheru, and parts that were discarded also became vectors for the disease. The afflicted then moved on to cannibalism and sacrifice of the uninfected, force-feeding victims until they reached gross proportions and then consuming them. The infected humans and San'Shyuum proceeded to spread the disease into other systems, which furthered the scope of the Flood outbreak.12 At this point, the Flood infestation, which had previously been predominantly a mind and behavior-altering affliction with only relatively minor physical changes, began to reshape its victims into a variety of forms designed to gather victims, engage in combat, and to rapidly consume useful biomass and other resources. Spread and withdrawal The infection quickly spread through both human and Forerunner space. Attempts to quarantine infected worlds and systems failed, leading to the Flood soon infecting hundreds of worlds in fifteen systems. In an effort to halt the Flood's continuing spread, human fleets began destroying Flood-infested Forerunner ships and cleansing Forerunner planets where Flood infestations were detected. Forthencho, the commander of the human fleets, chose not to warn the Forerunners in advance of these actions to prevent giving the Flood time to expand. In turn, many Forerunners believed that the Flood was a fiction meant to hide humanity's expansionist aims. Ultimately, the Forerunners interpreted humanity's tactics as acts of aggression, leading to the Human-Forerunner wars. With humanity severely weakened from Flood infection and now fighting a two-front war, the Forerunners were surprised at the ease of their earliest victories against the humans. However, apparently without warning, the Flood began to retreat from its assault on humans. Forerunner ships found healthy human worlds within sectors of Flood infestation, leading Forerunners to conclude that humanity had developed a natural resistance, immunity or cure to Flood infection. However, no immunity or cure to the Flood existed; the Flood had chosen to stop infecting humans.17 The Didact later speculated that the Flood's intent was to prevent humanity's extinction at the hands of the Forerunners by making it appear as if humans held a solution to Flood infection. At this time, the Forerunners also first came into contact with the Flood. The parasite devastated many of their fleets, before its deliberate recession from the galaxy tipped the scales in the Forerunners' favor, allowing them to sterilize any Flood infestation they came across in several thousands of worlds across the galactic border.16 While recognizing the legitimate concern of a Flood resurgence in the future, the Forerunners had difficulty extracting any intact specimens of the parasite for study; approaching the threat with appropriate caution, the Warrior-Servants directly cauterized any active infestations they encountered. From the scattered remains recovered for analysis, the Forerunners discovered that AIs that had been in contact with the Flood had been corrupted beyond repair by what the Forerunners would come to know as the logic plague, essentially the data equivalent to Flood infection.16 No fully intact specimen of the Flood could be found among the Pheru, humans, or San'Shyuum, as they had methodically destroyed any sign of infection, including all of the original carrier vessels that they had discovered.19 Any remaining Flood were believed to have fled the galaxy aboard infected ships,19 and the Flood was not seen again for nearly ten thousand years. While they managed to regain some of their strength once the Flood began to recede, humanity still stood against the Forerunners in the later stages of the conflict. Their campaign against the Flood had worn their resources thin, while the Forerunners led by the Didacthad managed to entrench their forces in advantageous positions which proved too powerful for humans to hold against.19 System by system, the humans fell back to their capital, Charum Hakkor, where they were finally defeated. After losing the conflict, the Forerunners devolved humanity and exiled them to their homeworld while erasing all signs of human achievement from the galaxy. Interim Due to the lack of evidence, most Forerunners were unaware of the existence or of the true nature of the Flood, and many dismissed it as a simple excuse for humanity's aggressive expansion before and during the initial arrival of the Flood. However, several high-ranking Forerunners were fully informed of the threat, and in secret began developing countermeasures should the Flood ever return. This became the source of a major political strife, with the Builders proposing the construction of an array of superweapons - Halos - while the Warrior-Servants led by the Didactchampioned a more conventional strategy of carrying out precision military campaigns from planet-sized fortresses known as shield worlds. The Didact eventually lost to the Builders and the entire Warrior-Servant rate was marginalized, with their fleets and forces disbanded or forced to submit under Builder control. This proved to have been a grave mistake, as the Forerunners found themselves ill-prepared to fight off the Flood after the parasite returned to the galaxy. Realizing that the Flood stood a significant chance of wiping out all sentient life and the prospect of using the Halos to stop them, the Lifeworkerrate of the Forerunners began a "Conservation Measure", researching the Flood while cataloging and preserving the galaxy's species aboard a number of facilities related to the Halo Array, mainly an extragalactic installation known as the Ark. Harborage : Thousands of years after the end of the Forerunner-Flood war, the human ship UNSC ''Spirit of Fire jumped from Arcadiato follow the signal of Professor Anders, who had been captured by the Covenant. They were led to an unknown planet, which happened to be a Forerunner shield world. Containment measures on this planet had failed catastrophically, and the entire surface of the megastructure was choked with Flood biomass. Ground forces were deployed to investigate the presence of unknown hostiles sighted by the ship's radar. After fighting their way through Covenant forces, Sergeant Forge and several Marine squads were attacked by the Flood. After successfully defeating the Flood forces, the UNSC forces created a firebase in the area that Anders' signal appeared to be coming from. The humans eventually tracked the signal to a massive Proto-Gravemind attached to several Flood colonies. The proto-Gravemind had duplicated Anders' signal, possibly in hopes of infecting the humans and spreading beyond Etran Harborage. It was discovered that killing a Flood colony weakened the proto-Gravemind and SPARTAN-II Red Team, with help from the firebase, destroyed the proto-Gravemind. The Flood responded by launching a massive attack on the Spirit of Fire's''Alpha, Bravo and Charlie Platoons to avoid them returning to the ship. Despite massive Flood resistance, forces from the ''Spirit of Fire were able to rescue the platoons before their firebase was overrun by the Flood. With the proto-Gravemind dead, the smart-AI Serina was able to reacquire Anders' actual signal which led to an ocean under which a docking port leading to the interior shield world was located. During the Spirit of Fire's''descent, the outer surface of the ship was infested by the Flood. With the aid of Sentinels and "cleansing rings" controlled by the installation's AI, the ''Spirit of Fire crew were able to cleanse the ship and proceed into the shield world. Within, the UNSC forces discovered that the Flood had managed to infest the interior of the shield world as well, though not to as massive of a degree as the surface planet itself. While rescuing Anders, Forge had to save her from three Flood infection forms and ran into some trouble with Flood forces on his following missions, though not to the massive extent they had been seen on the exterior planet. In order to prevent the Covenant from getting their hands on Etran Harborage's fleet of Forerunner Sojourner-class dreadnoughts, a plan was created to use the reactor from the Spirit of Fire's Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine to induce the shield world's artificial star to go supernova. The plan was a success and Etran Harborage was destroyed. The explosion obliterated the Flood on the planet along with the Covenant forces and the Forerunner fleet. Brief Recurrence : Main article: Outbreak on the CSS Spitfire On January 1, 2537, six years after the events on the Etran Harborage, a Flood outbreak was initiated aboard the Spirit of Fire by a Pod infector that had managed to remain hidden aboard the ship. As the Flood threatened to breach quarantine, Serina awoke Jerome-092who, with the aid of Professor Ellen Anders, was forced to exterminate all infected crew members, ensuring the survival of the Spirit and its remaining crew. All traces of the Flood parasite aboard the Spitfire were erased. Category:Organizations Category:Speices